Tag Archives: Prodigal Sons movie

This past July, we had the pleasure of getting a sneak preview of the remarkable documentary Paul Goodman Changed My Life at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville, ME. We’re excited to hear that the film will be showing at 6PM this Thursday, November 3, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre as part of the 23rd Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival. As he was at our screening of the film in July, director/producer Jonathan Lee will be present for Friday’s screening, a real treat for anyone in attendance.

ABOUT THE FILMPaul Goodman was once so ubiquitous in the American zeitgeist that he merited a “cameo” in Woody Allenʼs Annie Hall. Author of legendary bestseller Growing Up Absurd (1960), Goodman was also a poet, 1940s out queer (and family man), pacifist, visionary, co-founder of Gestalt therapy — and a moral compass for many in the burgeoning counterculture of the ‘60s. “Paul Goodman Changed My Life” immerses you in an era of high intellect (that heady, cocktail-glass juncture that Mad Men has so effectively exploited) when New York was peaking culturally and artistically; when ideas, and the people who propounded them, seemed to punch in at a higher weight class than they do now. Using a treasure trove of archival multimedia — selections from Goodmanʼs poetry (read by Garrison Keillor and Edmund White); quotes from Susan Sontag, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Noam Chomsky; plentiful footage of Goodman himself; plus interviews with his family, peers and activists — director/producer Jonathan Lee and producer/editor Kimberly Reed (Prodigal Sons) have woven together a rich portrait of an intellectual heavyweight whose ideas are long overdue for rediscovery.

If you’re fortunate enough to be able to make this screening, PLEASE GO. And once the film is over, please bombard director Jonathan Lee with your questions. He’ll be glad to regale you with stories of his research on Goodman’s life, and most especially on his family. As stated in the film’s trailer, Paul Goodman is quite possibly “the most influential man you’ve never heard of,” which makes Jonathan Lee one of the most influential filmmakers you’ve never heard of. Kudos to the Boston Jewish Film Festival for including this documentary in their program.